Goetheanum is in our hearts

Ita Wegman

Anthroposophy is a spiritual path (or new religious movement) launched by Austrian mystic Rudolf Steiner over a century ago. The international headquarters of the Anthroposophical movement, known as Goetheanum, is located in the Swiss town of Dornach. T H Meyer's book is a very “in house” look at some internal conflicts in the Anthroposophical Society after Steiner's death in 1925.

Most of the book deals with a split in 1935, when a faction headed by Marie Steiner (Marie von Sivers) expelled two other leading Anthroposophists, Ita Wegman and Elizabeth Vreede. The Dutch and British sections of the Society supported Wegman and Vreede, and were therefore expelled at the same time. Meyer sides with the expellees. Curiously, the bulk of Meyer's book reprints a document by the pro-Sivers faction, titled “Memorandum”. More sensationally, perhaps, Meyer reprints a 1935 letter from Sivers and her closest associates to Adolf Hitler, protesting the banning of Anthroposophy in Germany. The letter writers claim that Anthroposophy has no connection to Jews, pacifists or Masons, and that Steiner's Aryan background has been confirmed by the Racial-Political Authority in Berlin! While this doesn't prove that Sivers and the other majority leaders at Dornach were Nazis (I'm sure they weren't), it does show a rather fawning attitude to the Führer…

The split itself is difficult for a causal reader to understand, but seems centered on different concepts of spiritual authority. Marie von Sivers had the better “administrative” claim. Rudolf Steiner (her legal husband) had left all of his literary estate to her, and she was widely respected by the membership. Thus, Sivers believed that authority should be vested in the Vorstand, the regular executive committee of the Anthroposophical Society at Dornach. Ita Wegman, by contrast, was head of the School of Spiritual Science, the inner or esoteric circle of the Society, a post she (rightly or wrongly) claimed on the direct authority of Steiner. Wegman further claimed to have the same clairvoyant abilities as Steiner, received new revelations from the supersensible realm, and accused Sivers of not understanding “the new esotericism”. According to the “Memorandum”, one of her new revelations was that many of her supporters were reincarnated soldiers and officers of Alexander the Great! Thus, we have a classical conflict between a more free-wheeling charismatic leader (Wegman) and a more exoteric type who “only” wants to administer the prophet's old legacy (Sivers). The conflict between the two factions was sometimes rather nasty, Sivers and Wegman even quarreling over the control of the urn containing the deceased Steiner's ashes, and was ultimately solved by the expulsion of Wegman and her supporters in 1935.

Meyer also mentions some later conflicts within the Anthroposophical Society, but most of them are presented in such an oblique and “esoteric” manner, that it isn't entirely clear what he is referring to. For instance, he never mentions leading Russian Anthroposophist Sergei O Prokofieff by name. Yet, Prokofieff's expositions were apparently controversial in some circles. Meyer's own perspective sounds German-nationalist (but not fascist or Nazi), and he puts special emphasis on Steiner's supposed afterlife communications with the German general Helmuth von Moltke. Michael (the angel Michael, who plays an important role in Anthroposophical cosmology and soteriology) is said to be the national spirit of Germany. The Nazis were counterfeit occultists, led by the “sun demon Sorat”, who attempted to stop humanity from connecting with Christ, who returned “in the etheric” in 1933. Meyer believes in various conspiracy theories, including the notion that the Freemasons started World War I, and he strikes an anti-establishment pose by criticizing the Vietnam War and the war on terror. Meyer further believes that the Anthroposophical movement needs to become decentralized and less obsessed with itself as a necessary “organism”. Everywhere people practice Steiner's spiritual path, there is Anthroposophy, regardless of formal affiliation. “Goetheanum is in our hearts”. I couldn't help chuckle a bit when the author rebuked the leadership at Dornach for a display of modern art in the Goetheanum. The “artwork” was a huge pile of rotten banana peels! OK, Meyer does have a point here…

“The Development of Anthroposophy since Rudolf Steiner's Death” isn't an easy read, and is probably best suited for very specialized book collections dealing with New Religious Movements. Since I expected a more accessible study, I'm almost tempted to give the work two stars, but in the end I give it the OK rating. Hence, three stars.